BARNHAM mother-of-two Isabel Thurston, is standing for the Green Party in Arundel and South Downs in the May elections.

Having known West Sussex all her life, she has a great love for this beautiful area and hopes to give residents the opportunity to find out more about Green policies

that could improve life in many ways.

“We are committed to making society fairer, putting the real needs of people before profit,” said Isabel.

“The Green Party believes that we should fully fund our public services and firmly opposes any privatisation of the NHS. We also believe that education should be a right and so we would end university tuition fees.”

The most urgent issue of all for the Green Party is climate change. The party urges politicians to grasp the nettle; currently the government has signed up for international greenhouse gas reduction targets but is continuing to promote the extraction of fossil fuels. “We are now told that we need to leave 82 per cent of carbon fuels in the ground in order to meet our targets,” said Isabel, “but the Tories are encouraging fracking, which takes gas from underground rocks and is dangerous and polluting.”

If elected, Isabel Thurston would fight for improved, integrated public transport services and lower fares to help ease congestion on our busy roads. She does not believe that building more roads is a solution, since this encourages more cars. To improve the local economy we could lead the way with a state-of-the-art transport system.

Another issue the Greens are clear on is the need for new, affordable housing. This must be designed with local communities and not left to developers. “It goes without saying,” added Isabel, “that all new housing should be built to the highest environmental standards and in sympathy with its setting.”

For rural and small businesses, the Green Party also has good news as they are committed to supporting sustainable farming and keeping local towns thriving by, for example, standing up to supermarkets over pricing, changing unfair business rates and giving local authorities power to prevent chain stores taking over local shops.

If you would like to find out more about how Isabel Thurston would work to improve the quality of life in the Arundel and South Downs area, email her at Isabelthurston@myphone.coop or follow on twitter @isabelthurston